Gear & Gadgets —

Report: Best Buy tells HP to take back its TouchPads

Best Buy reportedly has managed to sell less than ten percent of the HP …

Best Buy has managed to sell only 25,000 HP TouchPads across its retail stores and apparently wants to return unsold units to HP, according to a source who spoke to AllThingsD on Tuesday. The tablet which initially used the same pricing structure as the iPad (starting at $499 for a 16GB model) has failed to interest consumers even when prices were reduced by $100 for each model.

We faulted the HP TouchPad in our review for falling short in several metrics compared to the iPad, but at the same price. In recent weeks, many retailers carrying the TouchPad applied discounts of $50, then $100, in temporary flash sales that eventually became permanent as the tablets refused to budge. The biggest sale yet from flash sale site Woot, which sold the tablet for $120 off, got HP a meager 612 customers.

According to the same source, Best Buy took 270,000 TouchPads into inventory, and so far has managed to move less than ten percent of them—and that figure may not even take returned units into account. Best Buy reportedly no longer wants unsold TouchPads taking up space in its stores and warehouses, and is requesting that HP take the stock back.

Best Buy and Woot are not alone in their inability to move TouchPads, analyst Rich Doherty of the Envisioneering Group told AllThingsD; WalMart, Microcenter, and Fry's have all struck out. Though these stores will often give refunds on device price drops for a few weeks after purchase, Doherty says that the fluctuations so soon after release make customers hesitate to buy today, when the TouchPad could easily be another $50 or $100 off tomorrow.

Whatever unsold TouchPad stock Best Buy can't give back to HP will likely find itself bundled along with HP computers in back-to-school sales, according to Doherty.

Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston

A little while back there was an article about how Android had grabbed 20% of the tablet market, measured by units shipped. The apple crowd, which I am normally loath to side with, pointed out that it was a poor metric because that didn't indicate how many had sold.

This article should make it clear why the apple partisans were correct in this case.

A little while back there was an article about how Android had grabbed 20% of the tablet market, measured by units shipped. The apple crowd, which I am normally loath to side with, pointed out that it was a poor metric because that didn't indicate how many had sold.

This article should make it clear why the apple partisans were correct in this case.

It breaks my heart that the legacy of Palm, which is embodied in the Touchpad OS (WebOS), is not faring better in the marketplace. I couldn't give a sh*t less about HP as a company (read: bitter ex-employee), but WebOS is a great product that has a ton of potential.

A little while back there was an article about how Android had grabbed 20% of the tablet market, measured by units shipped. The apple crowd, which I am normally loath to side with, pointed out that it was a poor metric because that didn't indicate how many had sold.

This article should make it clear why the apple partisans were correct in this case.

Except that Touchpad uses WebOS not Android ...

@kgersen: You absolutely missed the point the op was trying to make. Go back a re-read.

A little while back there was an article about how Android had grabbed 20% of the tablet market, measured by units shipped. The apple crowd, which I am normally loath to side with, pointed out that it was a poor metric because that didn't indicate how many had sold.

This article should make it clear why the apple partisans were correct in this case.

Except that Touchpad uses WebOS not Android ...

Except the point was that we were told "units shipped" not "units sold". It doesn't matter if they were running liquid gold that poured out of the seams.

A little while back there was an article about how Android had grabbed 20% of the tablet market, measured by units shipped. The apple crowd, which I am normally loath to side with, pointed out that it was a poor metric because that didn't indicate how many had sold.

This article should make it clear why the apple partisans were correct in this case.

Except that Touchpad uses WebOS not Android ...

The difference vs units shipped vs. units sold is the same, be it android, touchpad, apples, oranges, or any item that people fixate on so much that they start failing to comprehend the meanings of words.

In the case of android, units sold might be a bad metric as well unless that number includes the high rate of returns on some models like the Galaxy Tab.

It's a shame, WebOS is such a nice os. Palm couldn't get products to market in a timely manner, and now HP isn't doing any better. They need a critical mass in order to have people interested in the platform, and just can't seem to do it.

You can come up with reasons for why you buy an Android tablet instead of an iPad.

Coming up with a reason to buy an HP Touchpad or Playbooks instead of either an iPad OR an Android tablet is a much taller challenge.

Not as polished as either iPad or Android, not as "free & open" as Android, no apps, thicker then most, and more expensive then many of the Android tablets... it does not take a rocket scientist to "just say no" to HP and RIM.

I have not actually seen any of the Touchpad/Playbook display units functioning 100% either.. as opposed to Android/iPad, of which I have yet to see one that is broken in the store at all. (Okay, I did see the first Galaxy Tab pretty much "broken" in an AT&T store this spring, but I have not seen any Honeycomb tabs that were not functioning.)

I saw a bewildering array of tablets at Costco recently. The most surprising was a Vizio tablet which apparently runs the same apps as their televisions. And, no iPads since Costco and Apple had a falling out a while back.

When you throw in all the eReaders on the market I'm sure the casual consumer is a bit overwhelmed by the choices. The differences are more substantial than the laptops you see at BestBuy, which pretty much all run Windows except over under the Apple logo. You have to pick from iOS, WebOS, Android, and then more locked down systems like Nook and Kindle. And who knows what Vizio is running.

A little while back there was an article about how Android had grabbed 20% of the tablet market, measured by units shipped. The apple crowd, which I am normally loath to side with, pointed out that it was a poor metric because that didn't indicate how many had sold.

This article should make it clear why the apple partisans were correct in this case.

Except that Touchpad uses WebOS not Android ...

Um no, that's utterly immaterial kgersen. The point applies to any product at all, namely that "units shipped" can be poorly correlated with "sold through," and that companies do occasionally channel stuff badly. Sometimes, when you know a product is just selling out instantly, you can pretty sure that the correlation is very close, or if a product is a basic with a long running predictable stable sales line, but no such assumption can be made about a brand new launch, and particularly not a brand new tech device launch.

I feel like there have been a lot of companies that would have been better off being a lot more cautious in their ramp ups, and would have done well to attempt non-traditional sales drives. For example, perhaps HP might have worked on (or payed some third party devs) making some specific apps for a few focused markets and then really pursued that. Maybe some specific subset of education, or some specific industry, or area of government. They could have used excellent prices (but at a small scale, so not losing much) and focused marketing and tried to create some organic demand in a few areas, then expanded from there with some real world experience. I don't know what strategy would have been best, but I do feel like a traditional head on assault in venues that practically by definition have zero interest in pushing niche solutions was not optimal.

I mean heck, they could have at least looked at history a bit. How well did Apple themselves fare when it came to Macs in Best Buy or similar? Answer: not very. And that too was pretty predictable.

Considered Honeycomb is already facing a tough uphill battle against iPad, failure of Touchpad is no surprised considered it has almost 0 visibility before. During the launch week my BestBuy flyer label the touchpad as "Android OS". Let's see,

Damn, maybe I can get my hands on one for cheap. I haven't used webOS yet, but have been impressed with what I've seen and have been wanting to give it a whirl. While my wife will end up with an iPad to go with her (I mean my old MBP) and iPhone, I'd like to step outside the Apple ecosystem to give webOS a try.

But, I can see why it isn't selling that well. Little press over it. REALLY slow to boot up. Not open. The hardware probably isn't that bad. They did look nice. Too bad HP went with WebOS instead of Android.

HP's pricing was, and still is, extreme hubris. You can't dump a new tablet on the market and tell us to pay anywhere near the reigning champ's price. HP, get a clue, it isn't your hardware. You have a huge ecosystem disadvantage. You HAVE to come to market and offer a lot more for less if you want to sell.

The TouchPad might get my interest if the price is knocked down by more than $200. Am I asking a lot? So are most other buyers, evidently.

It's too bad. WebOS is cool, and has an arguably better interface than Android and iOS.

However, the TouchPad's hardware is behind the curve, it's too thick and heavy, the shiny plastic back is atrocious, and in general it feels like any HP consumer hardware - even cheaper than it is. There's no way it should have been sold at the same price as the iPad, especially when Android tablets with better hardware and design/assembly than the TouchPad were already undercutting it. Plus, the app selection is pretty weak. I bought a Palm Pixi, the cheapest smartphone I could find on Verizon, to tide me over until Ice Cream Sandwich, since my original Droid is flaking out, and I couldn't even come close to finding replacements for all of the apps I had on the Droid.

The difference vs units shipped vs. units sold is the same, be it android, touchpad, apples, oranges, or any item that people fixate on so much that they start failing to comprehend the meanings of words.

In the case of android, units sold might be a bad metric as well unless that number includes the high rate of returns on some models like the Galaxy Tab.

Similar to how Nintendo pushes units sold while Sony counts somehting as "shipped" if it has come off the manufacturing lines and is sitting boxed in one of their warehouses, let alone if it has been sent to a distributor. All we ask for is clear and honest numbers.

albeec13 wrote:

SilverRubicon wrote:

benInMa wrote:

Not as polished as either iPad or Android, not as "free & open" as Android

Android tablets are not polished, WebOS has it beat in that sense. And Android is not "free&open" as Google has shown in their 12 billion dollar investment.

Pointless troll post.

You're just mad b/c he's right

JEDIDIAH wrote:

yerrago wrote:

DOA - Blackberry Playbook - understandable.

DOA - HP Touchpad - unfathomable.

Ipad selling out quickly - a given.

Jobs has mastered the art of making a fast moving target of a product!

Not really. Nothing is moving with regards to the iPad at all. That's hype mostly.

Of course it's hard to compete with hype when the media is a willing conspirator.

The iPad2 was a mundane Apple product refresh.

Do you instead mean that nothing is moving in stores like the iPad does? Last quarter Apple averaged over 3 million iPads a month. No other tablet is moving anywhere close to that. The iPad 2 may have been a rather mundane refresh, but they can barely keep up w/demand for it, so that certainly says something.

As much as some people don't like to hear it, the TouchPad isn't as polished as the iPad or have anywhere close to as many apps. In short, the public doesn't care about the TouchPad due to the lack of an Apple logo and it isn't an iPad. They knw what to expect from an iPad and the public has shown over and over that they really don't care about being able to have USB ports or flash, they just want something that works for them and has apps they are interested in. I know my wife is happy w/her iPad and she has looked at several otehr tablets as they come out and is always glad she bought a first gen iPad instead of any of these competitors.

A little while back there was an article about how Android had grabbed 20% of the tablet market, measured by units shipped. The apple crowd, which I am normally loath to side with, pointed out that it was a poor metric because that didn't indicate how many had sold.

This article should make it clear why the apple partisans were correct in this case.

Well, you're not wrong in that units shipped is a really poor metric for popularity or market share. I absolutely agree with you there.

On the other hand, the iPad is a pair of products both sold by the same company. Android tablets are made by a variety of companies, not generally as their primary business concern (the iPad might not be Apple's primary product line, but iOS is a huge part of their business), and so there's a huge difficulty in trying to track "Android tablets" as a share of the market. You'd be trying to rely on a dozen companies, each with their own ways of measuring volume and product success, and possibly even their own disparate reporting periods, to compare with a single number from a company that sells most of their products directly. In fact, considering the variance in product quality, software builds, etc., I think that it's sort of useless to even try lumping Android tablets together.

Anyway, this sort of underscores a point I saw one of the authors at BGR make; there's not really a tablet market yet; just an iPad market.

Best Buy and Woot are not alone in their inability to move TouchPads, analyst Rich Doherty of the Envisioneering Group told AllThingsD; WalMart, Microcenter, and Fry's have all struck out. Though these stores will often give refunds on device price drops for a few weeks after purchase, Doherty says that the fluctuations so soon after release make customers hesitate to buy today, when the TouchPad could easily be another $50 or $100 off tomorrow.

Uh... no, I don't think that argument really works. The hesitance is merely a reflection on the original problem, which is that people don't actually want it. Does any of us imagine for a moment that if iPads went on sale for $100 off that it would "make customers hesitant to buy"? They'd jam the stores. They'd stand on each other's shoulders. At night, their bodies would plaster the entrance like some weird interlocking Escher drawing. And come to think of it, that would be pretty cool. I could go take a photo of that and use it as my new desktop picture.

If the tablet landscape is like this 18 months from now, I think it'll be safe to declare the tablet market akin to the mp3 player market; Apple owned and dominated.

But we are a long way away from being able to declare that. For now, HP really dropped the ball. The TouchPad is very thoughtful, gorgeous, well-designed UX, good content, and more apps than Honeycomb. A real shame that it isn't selling.

What a spectacular debacle the Palm purchase turned out to be for HP. By the way, why am I *still* waiting for a webOS phone that's purely a touch screen device?

But, I can see why it isn't selling that well. Little press over it. REALLY slow to boot up. Not open. The hardware probably isn't that bad. They did look nice. Too bad HP went with WebOS instead of Android.

Not really. Running Android they would have been another "me too" in a sea of "me toos".

Not as polished as either iPad or Android, not as "free & open" as Android

Android tablets are not polished, WebOS has it beat in that sense. And Android is not "free&open" as Google has shown in their 12 billion dollar investment.

Pointless troll post.

You're just mad b/c he's right

As much as some people don't like to hear it, the TouchPad isn't as polished as the iPad or have anywhere close to as many apps. In short, the public doesn't care about the TouchPad due to the lack of an Apple logo and it isn't an iPad. They knw what to expect from an iPad and the public has shown over and over that they really don't care about being able to have USB ports or flash, they just want something that works for them and has apps they are interested in. I know my wife is happy w/her iPad and she has looked at several otehr tablets as they come out and is always glad she bought a first gen iPad instead of any of these competitors.

Well he was referring to Android, and I disagree heartily that Honeycomb is "less polished" than iPad. Anyone that says so hasn't used both systems and is just regurgitating something they've heard elsewhere. I've used both, and feel like iOS is overly simplistic, which makes it harder for me to use. I'm also biased to some extent, because I have used and really like Android's interface.

If he were referring to WebOS, I'd still have to disagree. In fact, from what I've seen of WebOS (on phones, mind you) it feels more polished than iOS and Android. I haven't seen a TouchPad in person to make that call in the tablet space, but I can't imagine WebOS quality took a nosedive going from phone to tablet.